iPhone Stun Guns Get Improvements, Showing That This is Not A Fad

Who needs a stun gun when you have an iPhone? The new and improved Yellow Jacket iPhone case for the iPhone 5/5S debuted at CES 2014 this week and can now deliver 950,000 volts and 1.3 milliamps, a step up from its previous 4/4S model which only delivered 650,000 volts and 0.8 milliamps. According to Ben Popper at The Verge who was brave enough to actually use both models on himself, "The first-generation Yellow Jacket felt like a bee sting, painful but not debilitating. The second generation felt far stronger and caused the muscles in my arm to spasm."

Most of that increased power probably comes from the increase in amps, which are the real source of power behind stun guns; once you get past a 25,000 volts or so, the differences don't mean all that much. But it's nice to know that the same device I use to drunk text my sister can also be used to deliver almost 1 million volts into an attacker. Or possibly myself if I'm too drunk to figure it out.

The Yellow Jacket, whose new model cost $149 and will start shipping next month, snaps onto an iPhone just like a regular iPhone case, and contains the battery and electrical prongs needed to zap an attacker. Or really anyone. The Yellow Jacket also doubles as a back-up battery, but the new model also ensures that the device always keeps enough of a charge itself that it can still be used as a stun gun. At full charge it can be used about 50 times.

The truly strange thing about this is the fact that the creators of Yellow Jacket, despite not having any direct competition (though there is a company that makes an iPhone case with pepper spray), still wanted to improve upon their original device. Which shows that they at least think of this a serious product, not a novelty. In fact the CEO even seems to think it will end all iPhone theft. Which is unlikely, because that would require college kids to stop leaving their stuff unattended in the library, but still, is it possible that we'll be seeing a lot more self defense cases cropping up?

Only time will tell. Though it's also worth noting that without proper instruction on how to use stun guns, tasers, and even pepper spray, you're unlikely to successfully incapacitate your attacker. So if this does become a trend, hopefully it comes with some pretty extensive tutorials.